Editor’s voice: March – introducing some new themes

This month you will no doubt have noticed the little window popping up on the site inviting you to take part in a short survey. Don’t worry – it is not an attempt to try to sell you something, simply us trying to get to know you better by asking a few short questions around who you are and what you do, plus inviting comments on what we can do better. It should only pop up once and then disappear if you are not interested, so we hope it is not too intrusive.

So first off, thanks to all those who have taken the time to respond, particularly to the many who have gone beyond just ticking the boxes to also give us some constructive feedback and suggestions. These have all been very helpful and we promise to work through them all, respond where invited to and implement as many of your ideas as possible. This will definitely help us improve and develop pharmaphorum to make it better for you.

“…you will no doubt have noticed the little window popping up on the site inviting you to take part in a short survey.”

We have also had our first nominations for top pharma innovators, but there has been such a positive response we might even extend the deadline a little beyond the 1st April given the number of names coming across that we had not expected. We are interested to see what other new innovators we can uncover so just email your nomination to me along with your reasons. Remember it cannot be someone in your company, you must include a reason for the nomination. Your details and nominations will be treated in confidence.

Highlights from a busy March

Right, onwards from surveys and innovators and straight into my usual highlights of the last month (it’s getting harder and harder to pick with all the great contributions):-

• Denise Silber’s creative approach to questioning whether pharma needs to re-write the rulebook to embrace the new realm of digital in her “Dear Jane” letter, a theme that will be explored further at the upcoming Doctors 2.0 &amp, You event.

• Our latest social pharma faces interview with digital expert Marc Monseau, formerly of Johnson &amp, Johnson, which is full of common sense around how digital can be done right.

• My interview with leading physician blogger Kevin Pho, who always inspires innovation with his views from the medical front-line.

• Not to be outdone by me, Paul Tunnah video interviewed Stephen Whitehead, CEO of the ABPI, for the latest Executive Perspectives piece – well worth watching.

• Alex Butler’s pragmatic and optimistic response to Janssen closing the Psoriasis 360 facebook page, which has also inspired quite a few comments.

• Finally, not to forget the research side, I particularly enjoyed learning about J:DO mice and the key role they play in rooting out possibly dangerous drug side effects in the preclinical stage.

“…we have a lot, and I mean a LOT, of interesting new content ideas we are working on.”

An exciting April ahead

The benefits of having a strong editorial advisory board are really starting to kick in and we have a lot, and I mean a LOT, of interesting new content ideas we are working on. One key change you will notice is that we are starting to conduct themed months, where in addition to our usual broad mix of articles we have a particular focus on one area.

In April, our theme is market access and we already have a number of experts in pricing, reimbursement and health economics poised to publish and share their expertise. We were also pleased to have Sir Andrew Dillon, the Chief Executive of the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, agree to speak with us in a video interview which we are busy editing for publication right now – keep your eyes out for this one.

May will see us shift the focus onto mobile health and we already have many great contributors lined up for this one too. It’s not too late though if you want to get involved, so if you have something to say on either topic then get in touch.

More exciting developments

You might have noticed that we are doing more and more video pieces and audio interviews. We think watching and listening is a great way to communicate something and we intend to keep doing more of it. As a side effect of this we are getting increasing requests from companies to help them produce such content, whether it is for their use or publication with us. In fact, Paul spent much of the last few days over in Barcelona filming a multi-person video piece that we think will be quite cool.

“…we are getting increasing requests from companies to help them produce such content…”

So if you want our support with producing something that effectively communicates your insight then let us know – we might just be able to help.

Finally, the eagle-eyed will note that we have some new pages on our site. You can now read more about how to contribute, advertise or make use of our skills, including details of the upcoming social media workshop in late April, for which places are filling up fast.

But these website changes are just the very tip of the iceberg on some very exciting developments coming up shortly. April is going to be a busy and fun month!

About the author:

Rebecca Aris is Managing Editor of pharmaphorum, the dynamic online information and discussion portal for the pharmaceutical industry. For queries she can be reached through the site contact form or via Twitter @Rebecca_Aris.